Help us with our campaign for a new inquiry.

If there is any way in which you can offer your support to my campaign or know of somebody that can, please do not hesitate to contact me using the form provided below.

My daughter Krista died as a result of a failure to treat her heart condition while under the care of Dr Shinebourne at the Brompton Hospital. I have fought for years to uncover the truth about her death. In 2010 I found crucial information from a renowned cardiologist (previously employed at the Brompton) that was withheld by the Brompton into all 3 inquiries into Krista’s death.

Response From Robert Francis QC:

‘If the material you refer to was available at the time and should have been given to the various inquiries, but was not, then it could raise a question mark over the validity of those processes. I would respectfully suggest that is a concern which you may wish to raise with the Ombudsman’.

Despite this context, there has been a failure by all of the regulatory bodies (the GMC, the Ombudsman and more recently in 2015 the Care Quality Commission), to take action about this situation and to provide an independent investigation into my daughter’s death and to look at the allegations coming from other families to establish whether there has been any criminal behaviour or intent. All these bodies cite timescales or their organisational remit as excuses for not acting. I was told that Dr Shinebourne had retired from the Brompton in 2008. He is not registered to practice clinically by the GMC. However he still sits on ethics committees at the Brompton and has in his own words acted as a medical expert in over 400 cases, even being used by the NHS Litigation Authority (now NHS Resolution), to fight cases on behalf of the NHS.

Supportive Comments

‘I am a solicitor in Kingsley Napley’s clinical negligence department. I have acted for Josephine Ocloo for many years in her campaign for justice from the Royal Brompton NHS Foundation Trust for the death of her 17 year old daughter, Krista. She has made many attempts to get the issues raised by her case independently investigated but has failed to achieve the accountability that she seeks. Her case potentially raises wider and ongoing concerns about the care at the Brompton and has links with the issues being considered by the Mid-Staffs Inquiry and is also topical in the light of the judicial review by the Brompton to try and save its paediatric care unit. I feel strongly that an injustice has been done with records lost and critical views from the Brompton’s own consultant not considered by the reviews that have taken place. Ms Ocloo has potentially uncovered a wider pattern of wrong doing on the part of the Brompton but without funding it is impossible from the legal perspective to take this any further.

Deborah Nadel
Senior Associate
Kingsley Napley LLP

I fully support Ms Ocloo's fight to have the circumstances surrounding her daughter's death properly and independently investigated." Ms Ocloo's case is especially pertinent given that Parliament is currently debating the NHS Redress Bill. This is supposed to give patients and relatives speedier access to justice and compensation when things go wrong. However, despite the fine aims, there are flaws in the Bill that as they currently stand, will not deliver the type of independent investigation of adverse incidents that most are agreed are crucial to guaranteeing fairness and credibility and helping to bring to an end acrimonious litigation that at the end of the day benefits no-one."

Sarah Teather MP

AvMA supports Josephine’s quest for justice
Krista’s case is a poignant example of so much that is wrong with the systems for investigating and responding to medical errors and the barriers to accessing justice. Her mother’s determination to ensure that lessons are learnt for the benefit of others also typifies the feelings of thousands of families who have lost loved ones as a result of avoidable errors".

Peter Walsh, Chief Executive, Action against Medical Accidents (AvMA)

January 2008 – Sir Liam Donaldson (former chief medical officer), takes the unusual step of writing to the GMC suggesting they open an investigation into Krista’s death. He pointed out that he was aware it would not normally open one after five years “unless it was felt to be in the public interest”, but he wrote ‘I feel that the accusations are very serious, and thus you may wish to consider them despite the lapse of time since they occurred’. This request was refused by the GMC.